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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Well I Never

A new Grocery store chain just came into North Texas and it is one I never heard of before. It is a German owned store that does not have a huge Walmart style selection but what they do have is cheaper than I have seen.
A couple of weeks ago the wife and I visited the store for the first time and found out real quick this was place to go for all the crackers, chips, breads and milk products. Plus, the big uncrowded isles made for a pleasant outing.
One lady stopped us and asked if this was our first time and proceeded to tell us by shopping here she saves around $200 a month.

I guess it was that obvious we were first timers. It didn't help any I was complaining about having to "rent" our cart. It cost me twenty five cents to use their buggy to buy their food.
I had never seen this before and was dumbfounded. I complained all the way through the store and up to the checkout about spending a quarter on a cart. When the checkout lady finally got sick of hearing it she told me I get it back when I put the cart back. She went on to explain that it is an incentive to bring your cart back to the store and lock it up rather than leave it in the parking lot because they do not have cart boys.
Sure enough as soon as I plugged the chain back in, the mechanism squirted my hard earned quarter back out.
I giggled and said out loud, "Well I never"

Hey what is this chain and where is it-I haven't noticed any new stores in the Pilot Point area? LOL on the carts -we've experienced those carts in Ontario when visiting the folks. Ambitious kids (and adults) round up the unreturned carts to get their reward!

Our Aldis stores up here do that. We do our main shopping once a month there. We will literally walk out with 2 full carts spending only around $200. At Walmart with the amount we buy it would be closer to $400-$500 for the same amount. A lot of the food tastes identical and some that don't aren't far off. There is only a handful of things we get elsewhere.

MDR - we had those carts at several stores/malls/etc. back in Ontario like Carolyn above already mentioned. a lot of people didn't care about getting back their quarters so it was actually good for street kids and the homeless. i always left my quarter in but returned the cart near the door.

To be honest, I haven't been all that impressed with Aldi but I know a lot of people are. I guess I don't buy the same things. I do go there for produce because they can have some really good specials sometimes. Like, a week or so ago I picked up some pineapples for 99 cents each. Other stores were charging $3.

Coley - Being they are so new down here it is kinda a secret that nobody really knows about. I like it that way.

Kymber - It sure was new to me. It actually took a few minutes to figure out. I kept pushing on the quarter but it didn't go all the way in.

Kris - I wasn't real impressed either. The big isles made it nice but not a real big selection on most things. It is on our monthly store list now but not an everyday shop. we live about 20 miles away from it.

Aldi's were up in PA a while ago and now there is one in Huntsville that just opened up. Produce prices are good and if you need a lot of prepackaged stuff like cereal they always had a lot. My parents still shop there in PA. I need to get my booty over to the one in Huntsville and check it out. By the way back in the 80's they only charged a nickle to get the cart...

We've got Aldi's around here. It will take some time and some experimenting, but eventually, you'll find that you can get the majority of your groceries there for a fraction of other stores. We can fill a cart for $60 and think we stole the whole store. I love that feeling.

They do have some good deals. My stepson used to work for them. The store was started by two "ex" nazis after the war. Some of the things they do to their employees is downright immoral, and some are illegal. They lost a class-action suit brought by a couple hundred of their former employees because of their crookedness.

Ha Ha Ha you are a cheap A$$.. I bet you would have pondered over that quarter the rest of the day, if that machine had been dysfunctional and not spit it back out for some reason.. or all over that cashier again.. Ha Ha

G - I understand about the processed food thing but for long term storage some is needed. It is a little too far for us as well but for a monthly visit not so bad. Plus they just built a Walmart right up the road from it and a Kroger is across the road so I can do all the shopping in one location.

MDR, LOL, the Aldis here has used the quarter thing for the last 10 years. keeps carts out of the parking lot pretty well. Kroeger here is so obnoxiously over priced, I only go in there for oddball things like pearled barley. Walmart, geez, i'd rather be dipped in kerosene and set on fire than have to step one foot in there!